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Hammer converted an old house on the banks of the river Thames and called it 'Bray Studios' after the nearby village of Bray.
That became a major studio for the production of Hammer movies throughout the late 50s and 60s.
The film " Curse of Frankenstein" was a big hit in the late
1950s and led Hammer to specialize in Horror movies.
" Dracula " came out in 1958 with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.
Horror movies had been made before but this new wave of British horror did nt pull any punches, it was in living colour, the camera lingering on all the blood , gore and corpses to horrify its movie audience.
" Dracula " was a huge box office success round the world.
After the huge financial success of "Dracula" Hammer Horror films were on a roll and they were to roll on thru the 60's and into the 70's.
Horror, vampires and ghouls ...... plus sexy babes........ became a heady mix during the swinging 60s.
The young Ozzie Osborne was a big Hammer fan and had the idea of getting some of the Hammer themes into a song.
He came up with a song called Black Sabbath.... the rest is history.

The Hammer Horror production teams got it just right. The rich use of colour, the sense of isolation and the titillation combined with Gothic horror. Today many people think of Hammer as being 'cheesy' and naive, but it is interesting to note that, upon the release of their first Dracula picture, the film was universally declared by mainstream critics to be abhorant, due to the deep sexual nature of the film and Christopher Lees performance. It should also be noted that Mr Lee's performance as Dracula is held to be the finest interpretation of the character committed to the screen, beating, even, Gary Oldman's whirlwind performance.

To put it in context, his/Hammer's first version of Dracula was seen to be as shocking as The Dawn of The Dead, The Evil Dead and The Exorcist as well as the so called 'video nasties' of the Eighties. (Of which, by the way, in case you didn't know, even that great film, The Elephant Man, was considered to be such - just who the hell do these censorial dictators are, trouncing all over popular culture?? Pathetic! Anyway, sorry for that little rant....) In fact, so powerful was Lee's and Hammer's production, that, even today, almost no film set around that genre can escape their ghosts.

Hammer were makers of some outstanding and original films and , to be honest, without them the history of British cinema would be a vastly inferior and emptier place; in my view, and the view of a few others, their productions rate just as, if not more, important as the Ealing studio pictures and an artistic second only to the Powell and Pressburger films.

But, it is true that Hammer worked on the cheap at times and became exploitative nearing the end of their time. But, for the most, they knew what they were doing, and that includes all the many beautiful ladies chosen to appear in their films - all carefully selected - most of whom who were to fit the idea of the beautiful 'English Rose'.

I saw this just before I left school, within a day or two of the exact date the movie was set. Scared the hell out of me.
More than offsetting that though were Stephanie Beacham and Caroline Monro, Stephanie looking a lot like Debee Ashby would next decade:

In case anyone is interested, I have met Caroline Munro, Ingrid Pitt, Valerie Leon & Veronica Carlson. They were all lovely.
Yes, it is true sadly, that the gorgeous Julie Ege passed away last year (April 2008) from cancer. A very sad loss. I only found out about this last night whilst browsing the 'Net.
R.I.P. Ms. Ege.

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